보리스 아쿠닌의 소설 『아자젤』의 고전 추리소설과의 비교연구:주인공 형상화와 장르 특성을 중심으로

Abstract

Why are Russians so obsessed with Akunin's mystery novels? The purpose of this thesis is to analyze <Azazel>, the first and representative work of Akunin's Pandorin mystery series, from the perspective of the main character's figure, plot, and genre. I compared Sherlock Holmes with Pandorin from the point of view of ‘the type of detective’, and I reviewed various anti-detective personalities that are different from the classic mystery novels. Azazel, for example, does not deal with murder cases committed by a single individual, which is very unusual in traditional mystery novels. Azazel, the novel's title, is the name of the culprit of this novel. What is the identity of Azazel? It is close to a group or organization. If we keep in mind the fact that Akunin is a writer who has a voice critical of the current undemocratic and authoritarian Russian system, Azazel can be seen as a symbol of totalitarian socialism that the writer is trying to criticize. However, the important thing is not whether Azazel is a Jewish religious organization or a political group trying to realize a particular ideology. It means that any of those belong to a group or an organization, not just a private individual at least. Therefore, the greed of the individual, which is conventional in many classic mystery novels, was not the motive for the murder in 『Azazel』, but the great enlightenment ideology of the salvation of mankind. Also, in this paper, it is reviewed that the Russian mystery novel 『Azazel』 is rather closer to the tradition of the French mystery novel than the Anglo-Saxon novel. As discussed the above, the genre characteristics of Azazel should be analyzed closer to a crime novel rather than a detective novel. Lastly, the postmodern nature of this novel is briefly discussed.